Forged Mind Link
by Ceciliavonjoy
Summary: AU where, in the OVA, Metal Sonic didn't melt and die in the lava. Instead, he developed his own personality. This is basically a fic demonstration of that personality: A sass who pretends he is not a good guy. Enjoy! (The T rating is just because of swears. Based heavily on the OVA and my own headcanons.)


Metal looked over the plains, perched on top of the tallest rock around. Looked, but didn't see. He twitched his head like there was a bug buzzing in his ear. The hot sun reflected off his titanium frame, casting a bright shine. On another day, Metal would be thinking about how awesome it made him look.

But something he could not identity was itching at the back of his mind. Of course, Sonic was always there. Saying things, sending emotions at him as responses. The connection didn't strike Metal as odd; it had been there from the moment they'd met. Since a personality created itself from the programmed copy of Sonic's own. Since his personality had almost destroyed itself in lava. For some reason, Sonic had saved him.

"Weirdo," Metal muttered, not for the first time. "You and your "emotions"."

'You know what?' He thought in Sonic's direction. 'You're a weirdo.'

'Yeah?' Sonic's voice said in his head. 'You too.'

The words themselves were adequate and in character. But they sounded strained. Like he was...distracted.

Distracted. That was likely. Still, there was that emotional itch that Sonic kept sending his way. Did he know he was sending it? No. Seemed out of character.

Metal's engine whirred into action, roaring into a flare of pink fire. He raced down the rocky thing he had been standing on. Moving helped him think. A trait he shared with Sonic, if he was honest.

The unidentified emotion didn't feel good. It wasn't annoyance; he knew that one. Not anger. He kind of knew guilt, and didn't think that was it either.

He swerved between clustered rocks poking out of the ground, hardly thinking about it. He registered his own deep emotion: annoyance at all the feelings living things had. He has them too, sure, but why all the labels? 'What are you feeling now, Metal?' I don't know! I'm gonna punch you in the face! Punching counts as an emotion now, fucker.

'I'm gonna punch you. No reason.'

Metal waited. He got no words in reply.

The itch screamed. Metal beeped a cry of alarm and cut his engine to slow down. The emotion subsided only slightly, still loud and impossible to ignore.

'What the hell?!' He yelled back, 'Sonic?'

The answers were disconnected. Rocks falling. A feeling of a small, dark space. Breathing, very fast. Wanting higher ground but unable to find it. Images of rushing water.

He remembered a scene like it, but with lava, the pair switched around. Submerging into death with only one person who could save him.

Pink fire flared from Metal's engine and he shot across the rocky plain. The rocks in his line of sight grew taller and taller, cumulating in a range of mountains. He rose steadily to match them. The memories programmed into him said there was a tunnel in one of those mountains. Sonic enjoyed running through it to cool off when it was hot. Veins of water from an underground spring lined the caves. Veins that could be punctured…

Metal's arm clanged into his body, hit by a rock tip he hadn't bothered to dodge. Now was not the time to think about whether they counted as his own memories. Not now.

He soared, rising just above the mountains. His vision zoomed in to the side of the correct mountain. There. A cave, a cluster of newly fallen rocks just inside, blocking what had been the entrance. Metal shot down sharply. The air heat up in a cone around him. The cave appeared to grow in size as he burned through the sky.

At the last second, pink light flashed around him and left a clear shield around him. It took the brunt of the impact, shedding as Metal pushed down through the stone.

The shield ran out and he punched through the last layer of rock. He shot after his fist through the resulting hole into a small cave. Falling rocks splashed into the water that Metal narrowly avoided jetting into.

He hovered above it, and swiveled around his head. The tips of stalactites from the ceiling dipped into the water. This didn't look right; in his memories, the water was much lower. (Sonic's memories. Whatever.)

He stopped looking at blue and red huddled against the rock. 'Hey!'

Sonic was clinging for dear life to a stalactite. At the mind call, he looked up.

"M-" He gasped for breath. "Metal!"

In an instant, he had a grip on Sonic's peach arm. Sonic let go of the rock, Metal's back engine fired, and both hedgehogs rocketed up and out of the cave.

He jerked Sonic up, "Whoa!" and pink flashed in a sphere around them. Another shield, just in case _someone_ lost his fleshy, fragile grip. Metal dangled Sonic under him again. Sonic swung back up to his other side and grabbed Metal's free hand. That one dangled too, leaving Sonic hanging from robot arms like a swing.

Metal's arc leveled out, aimed towards Sonic's downed airplane home. That, at least, was separate from himself. He was a machine that stayed anywhere he pleased.

He could just barely detect words over the wind. 'I can't hear you.' Metal thought at him. 'What?'

Sonic tried again. 'Thanks, Metal! I would've died if you hadn't shown up,'

'You're damn right, "thanks!"' Metal mind-yelled at him. 'You'd better not be hurt after all that shit.'

'I'm alright.'

If Metal had eyes to roll, he would do it. 'I can read your vitals, dumbass. Your heart is _vibrating._ '

A spike of embarrassment. 'Eh, well...you know I can't swim.'

He did. Too well, in fact. 'So it's a standard organic fear response?'

'Yep.'

'So I can drop you.'

'What? What kind of logic is that?'

'There's nothing in there about aversion to heights. I will drop you.'

'Wow. I can't believe' Sonic replied, deadpan, 'that you're still trying to kill me.'

'I'm a murder robot; what did you expect?'

Sonic laughed, in his head and on the outside. His heart rate had settled down. 'Sure, a murder robot. It's not like you, I dunno, just saved my life.'

'Oh, shut up.'

A short pause. 'Are we going through the warp zone around here?'

He'd never gone through one. Sonic's memories had many trips through warp zones, though, for some reason. Why bother with them if you're faster than all forms of travel already? Organics. Illogical as usual.

'No. Look down.'

He was rewarded with an expression of surprise. 'Another mountain?' Recognition. 'The plane!'

'Now I can drop you.'

'Closer to the ground, wise guy.'

Metal swooped down. The enormous downed airplane on the side of the mountain came into greater relief. The plane's nose pointed down a long, narrow strip of sand by the sea. Metal zoomed down it like a landing strip of sorts, putting on the brakes as he went.

He came to a complete stop, dropped the shield, and let go of Sonic. The hedgehog spun the short distance to the ground, and bounced off the sand to land on his feet, facing Metal.

He looked relaxed now. "Thanks again," Sonic said, out loud, "Nice to know you'll show up if a mountain falls on me."

Metal put his hands on his hips, and beamed exasperation at his counterpart. 'I'm not a fucking boy scout. Keep your own ass out of trouble.'

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sonic waved it away, unfazed. "You do you, Metal."

The sentiment was pleasing in a way the robot couldn't articulate. 'Fuck yeah I will! Fuck yeah.' But he tried. 'Later.'

Sonic nodded. "Later. Stay in one piece, Metal!"

But the robot had already turned around and taken off, a fiery streak in the sky. Where it was headed, neither of them knew.

And the sun baked down on the free and the living.


End file.
